All books about: “historical romance…. What to read about a man of the Middle Ages Historical romance novels of the early Middle Ages

The Middle Ages (“dark ages”) is a mysterious time in the history of mankind, covered in romantic legends and chilling stories. Historians define this period as the one following Antiquity and preceding the Modern Age, but each country has its own time frame for the Middle Ages.

Characteristic features of that time were the feudal system of land tenure, the system of vassalage (the relationship of lord and vassal connecting the feudal lords), the political power of the church (the Inquisition, church courts, the existence of feudal bishops), the ideals of monasticism and chivalry, the flourishing of medieval architecture - Gothic.

Despite the fact that this period is considered the decline of antiquity, it was in medieval times that many important inventions were made: cannons, glasses, artesian wells, windmills, firearms, the printing press. There were also great advances in shipbuilding and watches, and great advances in technology. The first universities appeared, European travelers began to discover Asia and America.

The Middle Ages still attracts many of us with its mystical mystery, spirit of adventure, adventurism and discovery. It’s no wonder that it was during this time that many fascinating novels take place! The Book Club brings to your attention the 10 best books about the Middle Ages - at a special price!

History, as we know, does not accept the subjunctive mood. Everything was as it was, and nothing else was given. But if the events of ten years ago often remain mysteries for us, then what can we say about those events from the time of which ten or more centuries have passed. Take, for example, the Middle Ages, some of whose mysteries the author of this book tried to understand. For example, we know that the Mongols, who devastated Kievan Rus, did not touch Novgorod. However, why did this happen, why did the khans not take the ancient city?

We know that the national heroine of France, Joan of Arc, was born into the family of a wealthy peasant, and left this world at the stake in a square in Rouen. So, at least, says Jeanne’s official biography. However, there are many other versions regarding the life and death of the Maid of Orleans, for example, that she came from a royal, not a peasant family, and that another woman rose to the fire instead of her.

Riddles, versions, alternative research, previously unknown facts - probably what makes history so interesting is that not everything in it is neatly sorted out and that there will always be people who want to know more and solve its mysteries...

936 Convent in Normandy. The young abbess finds a wounded warrior on the doorstep. While bandaging the knight's wounds, she is horrified to see on his chest a well-known talisman that reminds her of the past... Once upon a time her name was Gisela. By the will of her father, she was to become the wife of the Viking Rollon. The girl's mother, frightened by her future relationship with a pagan, comes up with a cunning plan: instead of Gisela, she decides to marry him to a maid who looks like her daughter. But unexpectedly, chance intervenes in these plans...

His name inspired fear and respect. Just at his appearance, an ominous fog descended on the Atlantic coast. Legend has it that it was in his honor that the pirate flag was named the “Jolly Roger”!

All the combined forces of law and order cannot catch him, he easily eludes pursuit, and then with the same ease penetrates the ports he needs, despite powerful barrage artillery and huge garrisons. The taste of the sea and the exotic smell of the wind from new shores make him truly happy. Raising his “Jolly Roger” above the deck and standing at the helm, he again rushes into the unknown, reveling in the wind and freedom, which he would not exchange for all the gold and all the women in the world.

Who is he - Roger II, the founder and first king of the Kingdom of Sicily from the Hautville dynasty, Count of Sicily, Duke of Apulia, fearless ruler of the sea, who, according to legend, was crowned king by Jesus Christ himself.

Arthur, separated from Mildred by the will of fate, lives with the dream of a new meeting. And when the wounded knight de Breton dies in his arms, the young man makes a risky decision - to take his name and equipment in order to appear at the knightly tournament, where Mildred should be with her parents. However, the frantic Prince Eustace also dreams of the beauty. He watches her, makes insidious plans... And the girl’s parents insist on her marriage with another - the Saxon prince Edmund Eiling. And then Arthur notices that the Templars are beginning to pursue him, believing that he is the knight de Breton.

So whose name did the tramp Arthur take for himself for the sake of his beloved? And will they be able to be together when there are so many obstacles around?

End of the 12th century. England is ruled by Henry II Plantagenet. His sons Richard and John, with the support of their mother Alienora of Aquitaine, are plotting a rebellion against their father.

Ida de Tosny, who was forced to become Henry's mistress at age 15, gives birth to the king's child. Roger Bigot, eldest son of the recently deceased Duke of Norfolk, arrives at the king's court to claim his inheritance.

The stars brought Roger and Ida together at a bad time, but as fate would have it, they fell in love with each other. What can help lovers when it seems to them that the whole world has turned against them?

She was powerful and gentle, wise and unpredictable. Looking at the fragile girl, Louis, the future king of France, believed that this marriage was made in heaven. But after a while, the young queen realized that the bonds of marriage had become heavy fetters for her. It took her five long years of struggle with the church to gain freedom. And Eleanor’s heart has already been captivated by the witty, charming and passionate Henri Plantagenet...

After the death of the Smolyan prince, Izbrana took his throne by cunning. However, not everyone was happy with the reign of the prince’s daughter, and the high priest openly blamed her for the death of her brother Zimobor. But the young man did not die. In foreign lands he found love and gathered a powerful squad, and soon moved to Smolyansk. Only thanks to the devoted Varangian Hedin was the Chosen One saved. The princess's mirror, endowed with magical powers, protected the mistress on the way. With the help of his magic, she gained power and met the courageous Varangian king Hrodmar. He couldn't resist her beauty. But can the magic of the mirror give the Chosen One true love?

England. XII century. To avoid an unwanted marriage, Lady Mildred of Gronwood goes to a monastery. On the way to the monastery, to her misfortune, she meets the king's son, the treacherous and cruel Eustace. The girl miraculously escapes dishonor. And finally, there is a monastery, but no walls can stop love. Mildred fell in love - and with whom! The charming tramp Arthur. It is he who saves her from the vicissitudes of fate and wins her trust. However, a noble lady and a commoner cannot be together. To woo Mildred, Arthur must become a knight. He himself does not yet know that royal blood flows in his veins.

Centuries pass, but Shakespeare's plays continue to enchant. King Lear intends to divide the kingdom between his daughters. He takes the flattery of his elders for true love and expels his rebellious younger daughter. Very soon he will lose power and become an exile. Only then will he appreciate true love and devotion... Contents: “King Lear”, translator A. Druzhinin; “Henry VIII”, translator P. Weinberg; “Julius Caesar”, translator P. Kozlov; “Richard II”, translator M. Donskoy; “King John”, translator N. Rykova.

17th century In the heart of wild and beautiful Scotland, the destinies of Kathleen and Liam are intertwined. Kathleen was a maid in the house of the cruel Lord Dunning, who made the girl's life hell. But one day a knife ended up in the beauty’s hands, and the lord paid with his life for all her suffering. Liam, a prisoner of the lord, who managed to escape from prison that fateful night, helped her escape from the castle. She falls in love with this gloomy giant and agrees to go with him even to the ends of the earth.

It is fortunately impossible to make a list of the five best books about the Middle Ages. From hundreds of important studies about the life and feelings of medieval people, Arzamas reluctantly dared to choose those with which it makes sense to begin studying medieval studies and without which these studies today cannot be imagined

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. “Life and Entertainment in the Middle Ages” (St. Petersburg, 1997)

Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) - an outstanding architect, historian, archaeologist, restorer and artist. In addition to the restoration and restoration of fortress walls, castles, churches, palaces, town halls, the construction of private houses, as well as the production of stained glass designs and furniture, Viollet-le-Duc became widely known thanks to his works on the history of architecture, articles on the history of weapons, life and decoration of ancient buildings, construction techniques. One of his central works was the Explanatory Dictionary of French utensils from the Carolingian era to the Renaissance, published in separate volumes in 1858-1875, “an attempt to collect together and carefully classify “material evidence” of past eras in order to obtain a coherent story based on them and, combining disparate materials (sometimes short notes), present facts in such a way as to illuminate the social and private life of medieval society, including the creation of furnishings.”

The book “Life and Entertainment in the Middle Ages” is a selection of articles from this dictionary: a collection of the most curious information and facts, a light, sometimes ironic style (“Not at all expecting that accurate information about the life and customs of the Middle Ages will add talent to those modern artists who are mediocre from nature, we are still convinced that these materials will be useful to a talented person who knows the secrets of craftsmanship"), noble educational pathos - with many examples from the life of different social groups it is shown that, contrary to popular beliefs, the Middle Ages were not “dark ages” in the history of mankind; on the contrary, we see the life of a highly organized, civilized society. The publication is superbly illustrated - careful and detailed drawings perfectly complement the text (and vice versa). Finally, a quote that seems to express the spirit of the book and the character of its author:

“The Middle Ages are directly in contact with our time.<...>If we don’t know the Middle Ages, it means we don’t want to know it, we don’t take the trouble to thoughtfully and carefully study the wealth accumulated over centuries, from which we are separated not by years, but by prejudices carefully cultivated by those who thrive on ignorance and live by it.” .

Mark Block. “Feudal Society” (Moscow, 2003)

It seems that the evolution of the development of historical studies, especially those related to the history of the Middle Ages, is appropriate to divide into two large periods - before Blok and after. Marc Bloch (1886-1944) was an outstanding French historian, one of the founders of the Annales magazine (he published it jointly with another major French historian, Lucien Febvre), and later of the scientific school of the same name, the creator of a fundamentally new approach to the study of history. In a nutshell: the basis of his method is that history should be studied not based on an analysis of the thoughts of individual historical figures, but in direct mass manifestations; when studying a phenomenon, one must move from the period of its maturity to the time of its origin (and not vice versa, as was customary in old historiography). To imagine history as a continuous process, where one thing grows out of another and where the historical fabric itself, the everyday life of social groups, is of particular value - at that time this was a revolutionary idea. Actually, historical anthropology begins with the works of Blok and Febvre. The history of everyday life, interdisciplinary studies, everything that has become mainstream in recent decades has largely come out of their ideas.

The book "Feudal Society", first published in 1939
(and dedicated to Western and Central Europe from the middle of the 9th century to the first decades of the 13th century) is a generally recognized classic of medieval studies, a work that breaks with traditional historiography, which studied mainly the actions of kings and aristocracies, political events and wars, and considered feudalism as a relationship relating exclusively to the aristocracy . Blok explores feudalism from the point of view of collective psychology, social structures, the way of thinking and the worldview of people living at that time, including the peasantry, who before him remained virtually unnoticed.

Being an excellent stylist, he saves the reader from cumbersome scientific calculations: the book is written densely, vividly and vividly. The story begins from the time of the last raids of the barbarians: Arabs, Hungarians and Normans.

“To imagine these northern warriors, endow them with a powerful and brutal sensuality, a love of bloodshed and destruction, sometimes turning into madness that knows no bounds: an example of this is the famous orgy of 1012, during which the Bishop of Canterbury, whose Before this, life was wisely protected, counting on a ransom. The Saga calls one Icelander who took part in the raids on Europe a “baby lover” because he refused to impale babies on a spear, which was the custom of the rest of his comrades. Is it surprising that everyone was in awe of the Normans?

Aron Gurevich. “Categories of medieval culture” (2nd edition, corrected and expanded. M., 1984)

The popularizer and successor of the ideas of the Annales school, Aron Yakovlevich Gurevich (1924-2006), influenced Russian historiography as seriously as Marc Bloch influenced French. The book “Categories of Medieval Culture” was published in 1972 and immediately became an intellectual sensation. The Soviet reader, who had previously dealt exclusively with one or another aspect of the interaction of “productive forces” and “production relations”, discovered that, it turns out, history can be looked at from the point of view of the people who lived then, with their unique picture of the world and ideas about life. It is noteworthy that the book did not become a purely local phenomenon: translated into major European languages, it left a noticeable mark on Western medieval studies. Here is what the author himself says about the problems of his research: “We inevitably ask history questions that arise before us ourselves. This questioning, the attempt to enter into dialogue with people of a culture other than our own, is an integral function of modern consciousness. It is not without reason that throughout the 70s and early 80s, many works appeared exploring the most diverse aspects of the culture of the Middle Ages, which for so long and undeservedly remained a blank spot on the historical map of humanity. Familiarization with new works seems to confirm the justification of the direction chosen in the book - an analysis of the worldview of medieval man, the picture of the world that he created in the process of his socio-cultural practice."

Jacques Le Goff. “Civilization of the Medieval West” (Moscow, 1992)

Jacques Le Goff (1924-2014) is a major French historian, a representative of the third generation of the Annales school. The book “The Civilization of the Medieval West” was published in 1964, and was published in Russian in 1992. Here is what A. Gurevich says about Le Goff’s scientific method: “In order to understand the meaning of a statement contained in a historical source, that is, to correctly decipher the message of its author, one must not proceed from the idea that people have always, throughout history, thought and felt in the same way, just as we ourselves feel and think - on the contrary, incomparably more productive is the hypothesis that a different consciousness is imprinted in the historical source, that before us is the “Other”. Having uttered this word, we thereby approached the very essence of the work of the author of “The Civilization of the Medieval West.” For the pathos of Jacques Le Goff’s diverse scientific interests lies precisely in the study of the problem: what was man like in a distant era of history, what is the secret of his originality, the dissimilarity from us of the one who was our predecessor?” Le Goff focuses not so much on the lives of the educated elite (although he does not cease to study their work), but on the everyday person. This ordinary man did not understand Latin, was within an oral culture, and his morals and beliefs, behavior and appearance in general were of no interest to learned people who perceived him as an “other”; and in that era, as Gurevich notes, it was these people, who constitute the so-called silent majority and, in fact, excluded from history, who form the basis of society.

In the introductory article to the Russian edition, Le Goff emphasizes: “Most of all I wanted to depict all these aspects of medieval civilization, demonstrating mentality, emotionality and behavioral attitudes, which are by no means superficial or unnecessary “decorations” of history, for they gave it its entirety. its colourfulness, originality and depth: symbolic thinking, a sense of uncertainty or belief in miracles would tell us more about the Middle Ages than sophisticated dogmas and ideological anachronistic abstractions.”

Progress in economics, science, culture, religion and demography seems to Le Goff more important than the vicissitudes of political life. The latter - represented, for example, by the struggle between popes and emperors - concealed "a great political innovation - the formation of modern states that emerged from the feudal system and coexisted with it without destroying it (as it seemed to traditional historiography)." The study ends with the crisis of the 14th-15th centuries, which, according to the author, was more of a mutation and transformation than a decline (as often happens in history).

Johan Huizinga. “Autumn of the Middle Ages” (M., 1995)

The immediate predecessor of the Annales school, the Dutch philosopher, historian and cultural scientist Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), in his works was already moving away from the positivist concept of history as a process requiring a rational explanation. He believes that laws and rules that claim to be universal cannot be applied to history. The forerunners of the “New Historical Science” allow Huizinga to include, in particular, an appeal to collective psychology, a study of mentality, and the way of medieval life. The Italian historian Ovidio Capitani, in the preface to the 1974 edition of Huizinga's works, wrote:

“What seemed strange in his historiographical method (in comparison with the historiography of the 19th century) can today be characterized as a certain prelude to interdisciplinary research, to a non-Eurocentric orientation of research, which is now not only “conceptualized”, but also experiencing a stage of exaltation.” The first edition of "Autumn of the Middle Ages" was published in 1919. Subsequently, the book was translated into all European languages ​​and reprinted several times; in Russia was first published only in 1988 - almost seventy years later. According to the author, the book “makes an attempt to see in the XIV-XV centuries not the proclamation of the Renaissance, but the completion of the Middle Ages; an attempt to see medieval culture in its last life phase, like a tree whose fruits have completely completed their development, are filled with juice and are already overripe. The overgrowing of the living core of thought with rational, stiff forms, the drying out and hardening of a rich culture - this is what these pages are devoted to. My gaze, when I wrote this book, seemed to rush into the depths of the evening sky, but it was blood-red, heavy, deserted, in threatening leaden gaps and shone with a copper, false shine.”

Much in this book has not lost its relevance today, but these words of the philosopher are worth remembering, especially in those moments when it seems that the world is rapidly plunging into darkness:

“Every time leaves behind far more traces of its suffering than of its happiness. Disasters are what history is made of. And yet some unaccountable conviction tells us that the happy life, the serene joy and sweet peace that befalls one era are, in the end, not very different from everything that happens at any other time.

What will warm a soul frozen from loneliness? What would be the best gift for Christmas? Of course, love! Love is fiery, passionate and romantic, sensual and tender. Love is the same as in this collection, which features stories from three queens of historical romance—Jane Fraser, Sabrina Jeffries, and Julia Landon.

Knight of the Holy Sepulcher Alexander Trubnikov

A rich peasant and a poor knight go on a Crusade. At first, their relationship did not work out, but having jointly killed a couple of scoundrels and falling into a web of medieval intrigue, the ancient French became strong friends. Lots of adventures, battles and love, Templars and Saracens, and most importantly – the author’s excellent sense of humor. All this makes the book “The Knight of the Holy Sepulcher” an extraordinary event in the world of historical adventure novel.

Love's epiphany by Jill Tattersall

The main character of this fascinating love story is endowed with the wonderful gift of foresight. Her new acquaintance is conducting an investigation at the company where she works. Feeling that he is in mortal danger, she tries to save her friend. Their desire to ward off trouble with their common strength gradually develops into love...

Mary Spencer's Vow of Love

Is it possible these days to write a book that combines the tenderness and romanticism of a love story with the exciting, captivating plot of a historical narrative? Yes, if Mary Spencer takes on it!.. And then a story worthy of being glorified in a medieval “knightly romance” is born. The story of the proud knight Eric Stavelot, who vowed to deliver the woman he loved to someone else's marriage bed, and the young lady Margot le Brun, who secretly swore an oath not to belong to anyone except Sir Eric, who won her heart as a child. And then it begins...

Sisters Georg Ebers

Georg-Moritz Ebers (1837-1898) - famous German Egyptologist and talented novelist. His works (Ebers left readers 17 historical novels: 5 about the European Middle Ages, the rest about Ancient Egypt) combine a scientifically based reproduction of the depicted era and a fascinating plot. The fourth volume of the Collected Works includes novels dedicated to Egypt of the Ptolemaic dynasty: “Sisters” (1880) - a novel about young Egyptian women whose fate was decided during the reign of two kings - Philometer and Euergetes, and “Cleopatra” (1893) - a history...

Word from Georg Ebers

Georg-Moritz Ebers (1837 – 1898) was a famous German Egyptologist and talented novelist. His works (Ebers left readers 17 historical novels: 5 about the European Middle Ages, the rest about Ancient Egypt) combine a scientifically based reproduction of the depicted era and a fascinating plot. The final ninth volume of the Collected Works includes two of the most interesting novels from the European Middle Ages. The action of “The Lay” and “The Burgomaster’s Wife” takes place in the second half of the 16th century. The novel “The Word” is based on...

The Gentle Rascal Linda Bartell

Linda Lang Bartell's romance novel takes place in medieval Italy. The beautiful daughter of a prince is to become the wife of an illegitimate gypsy whom she hates. The mortal danger threatening him provides an excellent opportunity to avoid an unwanted marriage... Will true love overcome the obstacles that arise in its path, will Juliet fall in love with her handsome groom?

Sand borders Susana Fortes

Susana Fortes (1959), Ph.D. in Geography and History, university lecturer, is also one of the most prominent names in modern Spanish literature, she is the winner of many awards. She is distinguished by her virtuosic style and “soft rigidity” of storytelling. “Borders of Sand” is a book that can be read in one breath, since it is a kind of fusion of thriller, detective story, spy action film and romance novel. At the center of the story is the fate of three people: two men and a woman who were brought together, using the words of Salvador Dali, “a premonition...

Alexandre Dumas Henri Troyat

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) is an outstanding French playwright, poet, novelist, who left behind more than 500 volumes of works of various genres, a genius of the historical adventure novel. The personal life of the author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo was as stormy, varied, restless and fascinating as that of his heroes. Countless love affairs, the triumphant success of novels and plays, fabulous incomes and no less fantastic expenses, luxurious receptions and the construction of a castle, which had to be sold due to lack of money for it...

Evening Song by Candice Camp

The novel takes place in medieval England. To take revenge on his enemy, the evil and treacherous Duke invites a commoner girl to play the role of a noble lady. The beautiful Alina agrees, but, finding herself in the arms of a courageous and handsome knight, she realizes that she is taking a mortal risk. Lies push young people away from each other, but true love gives them happiness again. Love, hatred, tenderness, deception - all this is intertwined into a tight knot of a fascinating plot.

Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole

“The Castle of Otranto” (1764) by Walpole opens a long series of popular Gothic novels, “novels of mystery and horror,” but at the same time historical novels on medieval themes, the pinnacle of which at a new, higher stage of development are the medieval novels of Walter Scott. “The Castle of Otranto” is a novel that struck the imagination of contemporaries with a heap of terrible, mysterious and supernatural things. The novel takes place in medieval Italy, at the turn of the 12th–13th centuries. The owner of the castle of Otranto, the cruel feudal lord Manfred, is...

Arthur is the king of dragons. Barbarian Origins... Howard Reed

– M.: Publishing House “Manager”, 2006. – 360 p. ISBN 5-8346-0082-4 Series: Myths and Heroes King Arthur is the first knight among kings and the first king among knights, whose image and deeds constituted a huge era in the history of European literature. Arthur continues today to be an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the British world, considered the founder and pillar of the British nation. Who Arthur really was, what is hidden under the layers of historical and literary tradition - hundreds of researchers have been asking this question for centuries...

Sinner Susan Johnson

Susan Johnson, perhaps the most original of contemporary talented US writers, “The Sinner” is a magnificent fusion of historical women's novel and melodrama. This is an exciting story about the love of a young beauty from an impoverished Scottish family and a young English duke with a reputation as a violent libertine. A non-standard plot in which authenticity is gracefully combined with fiction, and sincerity in the description of the feelings and love relationships of the characters creates in the reader an indelible impression of the joy of love.

Serapis Georg Ebers

Georg-Moritz Ebers (1837-1898) was a famous German Egyptologist and talented novelist. His works (Ebers left readers 17 historical novels: 5 about the European Middle Ages, the rest about Ancient Egypt) combine a scientifically based reproduction of the depicted era and a fascinating plot. The seventh volume of the Collected Works includes two historical novels. The first of them, “Homo sum,” is dedicated to the emergence of the institution of monasticism in the depths of the Christian communities of Egypt and Syria. The second novel, Serapis, takes the reader to Alexandria in 391...

The Middle Ages attracts and has attracted a huge number of authors (and readers, of course, too). Crusades, knightly tournaments, castles, mysterious monasteries... Many have tried to write historical novels based on this rich material, but only a very few authors have produced true masterpieces.

We've selected five classic novels set in the Middle Ages.

Ivanhoe. Walter Scott

Walter Scott's famous novel was recognized as a classic of world adventure literature already in the 19th century, and in the next, 20th century, it was filmed a huge number of times. The story of a “disinherited” knight has everything a romantic lover of medieval England needs: knightly tournaments and beautiful ladies, proud Saxons and resourceful Normans, court intrigue and living legends. Generously seasoning the text with folklore and Chaucer's poetry, the author makes the description of the life and customs of that time even more exciting than the plot itself.

Notre Dame Cathedral. Victor Hugo

The fate of Victor Hugo's famous novel pleasantly surprised both the author himself and the whole of France. The old Gothic cathedral, which the authorities were planning to demolish, became famous throughout the world through the efforts of the classic and became one of the symbols of Paris. The historical work done by the writer is colossal: in the legend about the tragic love of a hunchback for a gypsy there is not a single fictitious name. And masterly descriptions of the architecture, customs and life of the city will allow the reader to plunge headlong into the late French Middle Ages.

Iron King. Maurice Druon

"The Iron King" is the first book in the popular "Cursed Kings" series, which inspired George R.R. Martin to create "". The history of France, from Philip the Fair to John the Good, is carefully transferred by Maurice Druon to the pages of his works: with rare exceptions, all the events and characters described are real. Reading about the incredible cruelty and intrigue at the court of the “iron” Philip IV, you inevitably begin to think, maybe it’s all about the curse of the Templar Order?

Crusaders. Henryk Sienkiewicz

When Henryk Sienkiewicz finished his Crusaders, he was already one of the most widely read writers in Europe. This novel became no less popular than his own “Camo is coming”. On the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald (already in 1960), which occupies a central place in the plot of the novel, Alexander Ford made a film based on it of the same name, which became the most famous work of the Polish director.

It is worth noting that the adventures of the knights Macko and Zbyszko are not limited to battles with the Teutons and serving the “beautiful lady”. In addition to the everyday and social structure, the future Nobel laureate described in great detail the captivity of heroes, torture and even methods of healing wounds in that distant era.

. Umberto Eco

Baudolino is not only Eco’s fellow countryman, but also a talented storyteller, and a completely unreliable one at that! We learn about the fate of a peasant boy, adopted by Frederick Barbarossa and who spent half his life searching for the mythical Kingdom of Prester John, from the same old man. We are accompanied by a medieval historian and judge - Nikita Choniates. Is it any wonder that historical facts have merged here with incredible myths, cynical humor with philosophical dialogues about Christianity, and familiar languages ​​with fictitious ones?

The romantic image of the medieval era, knightly tournaments and beautiful ladies, born of fiction, was replaced by radical naturalism: plague masks and carnivals, humiliation and, at the same time, the triumph of the flesh became favorite attributes. Is it possible to answer the question, what was the true consciousness of medieval man? For those who crave a more complete immersion and comprehensive acquaintance with the attributes of the Middle Ages - a new selection of books from T&P.

Autumn Middle Ages

Johann Huizinga

A book that has become one of the most famous and popular studies on the Middle Ages. Verified from the point of view of historical reality and the factual part, it turns out to be precisely that talented work that, while formally depicting an era long past, is capable of telling something new about the present day at any time.

Categories of medieval culture

Aron Gurevich

The author of the concept of “medieval chronotope” identifies in the consciousness of a person of the era the key categories that organize his world: space and time, and the research is based on them. The fact is that a person is not born with a ready-made sense of space and time - it varies between eras, has its own characteristics and acts as the basis on which each specific culture grows and develops.

Middle Ages people

Robert Fossier

In the key work of Robert Fossier, one of the outstanding professors at the Sorbonne, the reader is presented with vivid and full-blooded pictures of the Middle Ages: the author writes the smallest interesting details of everyday life into the global canvas of the era. It is impossible not to note Fossier’s powerful erudition, thanks to which he debunks the main myths and stereotypical ideas about the Middle Ages.

Middle Ages people

Eileen Power

In a work bearing the same title as Fossier's, Power explores the lives of ordinary people, from the peasant of Charlemagne and the 13th-century Venetian traveler to the Parisian housewife and draper of Henry VII. The important thing is that each of the figures chosen by the author, despite all the concreteness presented, expresses the key typical features of the era.

Birth of Europe

Jacques Le Goff

Despite the fundamental nature of the approach, one of the main works of medievalist Jacques le Goff turns out to be a fascinating journey into the Middle Ages. Unlike many historical works, Le Goff takes a comprehensive approach to his subject: he not only points to events that once occurred, but also reveals the process of development of culture as a whole: economic, social, artistic and religious changes.

Symbolic history of the European Middle Ages

Michelle Pastoureau.

Just like Le Goff in his work “Heroes and Miracles of the Middle Ages,” Pastoureau explores the European imaginary through a comprehensive consideration of the symbolic plane and creates the author’s concept of “symbolic history.” Drawing a line under many years of research work, Pastoureau seeks to show what is hidden from the view of modern man: color and subject symbolism, symbolic actions in the social sphere (for example, the meaning of certain professions), attitude towards nature and animals.

Gothic architecture and scholasticism

Erwin Panofsky

Erwin Panofsky, one of the most prominent art theorists and an authoritative expert on the work of Albrecht Durer, devoted his work to identifying the direct connection between scholastic thinking and the architectural and artistic forms of medieval culture. It is worth noting that Panofsky’s works, in their depth and structural elaboration, definitely became a new stage in art criticism.

History of the body in the Middle Ages

Jacques Le Goff, Nicolas Truon

The duet of representatives of the Annales school turns out to be no less interesting than the independent works of Le Goff. Despite its small volume and light, essay-like style, "The Story of the Body" gives insight into one of the most disturbing aspects - attitudes towards the body. For researchers, the concept of the “body” becomes a prism that illuminates a wide range of problems - social control, hygiene, disease and healing, sexuality, sensual and spiritual practices.

Gilles de Rais process

Georges Bataille

The book consists of two parts: the first is the author's reflection, in which Bataille rather uses the figure of de Rais, developing his own idea about the nature of violence. The second part provides historical documents that present with amazing clarity the truth of medieval legal proceedings - with brutal interrogations, torture and forced confessions. Often in his descriptions, Bataille uses the dry language of reports and statistics, which produces an even greater effect.

Miracle Kings

Mark Block

One of the founders of the Annales school, Mark Bloch, wonders about the reasons for the reverent awe of the aristocracy, about the foundation on which monarchical power rested. Guided by the key principles of his school, the historian takes an initially rather narrow and specific issue to a fundamental level and generally considers the issue of vesting power with sacred features. In this regard, his research turns out to be more than relevant.